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The Land Before Time IX: Journey to Big Water
The Land Before Time IX: Journey to Big Water is a 2002 direct-to-video animated adventure musical film and the ninth film in the animated [http://landbeforetime.wikia.com/wiki/List_of_The_Land_Before_Time_movies Land Before Time] series. Produced and directed by Charles Grosvenor, with a soundtrack composed by James Horner. In the movie, Littlefoot, Cera, Ducky, Petrie, and Spike befriend a mischievous Opthalmosaurus named Mo, who has been stranded from his home in the Big Water by recent heavy rains. When none of the grownups offer any assistance, the children decide to take him home on their own. The Land Before Time IX: Journey to Big Water was well received by the critics, and received nominations for several awards. Along with being re-released several times, the movie also spawned a PlayStation video game. Plot The Great Valley has been experiencing a heavy "skywater" for several days, and Littlefoot grows impatient, waiting for the bright circle sun to shine. When it does, he goes to find his friends, but they are all preoccupied, Cera and her father are moving a log which rolled onto their nest, Ducky, Spike, and their family are relocating their nest, and Petrie has come down with a cold. Feeling bored, Littlefoot decides to explore on his own, and discovers that the "sky water" created a large "new water" in the Great Valley. Though the adults advise against approaching it, Littlefoot goes back to the water the next morning, to investigate a mysterious voice in its direction. When there, he meets the caller: a young, fun-loving, swimmer (Opthalmosaurus) named Mo, who invites him to play. In the meantime, his friends overhear him playing, and run to join. Littlefoot excitedly tells them that he and Mo just became "mud brothers", and they question Mo's whereabouts. When Littlefoot sees that Mo has disappeared, Cera becomes convinced that Mo is imaginary. Petrie assures Littlefoot and the others that imaginary friends are all right, at which point Mo reappears. After being introduced to the others, Mo informs them he is from the Big Water, and explains how he ended up in the Great Valley; when the sky water caused a rise in the Big Water, it flowed over high cliffs into the valley, carrying him away with it. Convinced that he is alone, he is startled to find a sharptooth swimmer (Liopleurodon) making his way towards the gang. After Mo manages to stop him from doing the children harm, Littlefoot decides to ask the grownups to help in returning Mo to his home. The grownups refuse, due to the danger of helping a strange creature from outside the Great Valley, and after an earthshake separates them from the rest of the valley, Littlefoot and the others decide to return Mo on their own. On their way they encounter an obstacle: a large boulder in the water, which Mo must jump over. Later, Ducky falls into a nest of Diplodocus eggs, and after explaining their presence to the mother (referred to by Ducky as "Mrs. Mama"), she lets them spend the night. The next day, when they make off again, they discover that they are nearing the Big Water when the water starts to taste salty. Later, they encounter the sharptooth swimmer who had escaped from a wall of rocks imprisoning him in a cave, after the earthshake for the final time, and Mo appears to sacrifice himself to save them. The next morning, they find that Mo is all right, and he informs them that the Sharptooth Swimmer stopped chasing him when he smelled something in the distance. Littlefoot inhales in the same direction, and realizes that the Sharptooth Swimmer returned to the Big Water. When they reach it themselves, Mo reunites with his pod, then pleads with the gang to stay, but Littlefoot insists that he and the others must return to the Great Valley. Mo offers to show him his home before they leave, and Littlefoot is surprised by the beauty of the undersea world. When onland again, Littlefoot and the others promise they will always be friends with Mo, and then return home. Reception Analysis The Land Before Time IX: Journey to Big Water was received considerably well by the critics. In the film's review on DVD.net, it was said that like the other films in The Land Before Time series, The Land Before Time IX: Journey to Big Water followed a winning formula, which consisted of "fun characters, fun adventures, good morals and lessons, and happy songs for young children to sing along with".[2] James Anthony on Webwombat.com rated the film's overall quality as 65% out of 100, and said that it was likely to be fun for kids, and non-offensive to adults. He also praised the songs, and that Donny Osmond sang No One Has to be Alone.[3] In the Walker County Messenger's review of Journey to Big Water, the films in the series were each described as teaching a valuable lesson to children; this film's lesson was about courage. It also said that the film had been called "71 minutes of fun", and would make a good Christmas stocking stuffer.[4] On IMDB, the film though was less received, with a 5.1 rating with 577 votes.[5] On Rotten Tomaotes, there are no critic reviews, but the film has a 54% audience rating of 42,650 votes.[6] Awards/Nominations Thomas Dekker received a Young Artist Award for Best Performance in a Voice-Over Role in 2003, for voicing the character Littlefoot in The Land Before Time IX: Journey to Big Water.[7] Also in 2003, singer Donny Osmond and songwriters Michele Brourman and Amanda McBroom received DVD Premiere award nomination for Best Original Song, for the end credits version of "No One Has to be Alone", which lost to Jennifer Love Hewitt and Chris Canute for the song "I'm Gonna Love You" from Disney's The Hunchback of Notre Dame II.[8] Brourman and McBroom were nominated for Best Original Song again in 2003, this time together with performers Aria Noelle Curzon, Anndi McAfee, Thomas Dekker, and Jeff Bennett, for the song "Imaginary Friend".[8] Michael Tavera was nominated for Best Original Score, for his composition for the film, but lost to Arnie Roth for Barbie as Rapunzel.[8] Charles Grosvenor was nominated for Best Animated DVD Premiere Movie, but lost to Hiroshi Saotome and Chris Henderson for The Hunchback of Notre Dame II.[8] Voice actor Kenneth Mars character animation artist Bunis Yang were nominated for Best Animated Character Performance, for the character Grandpa Longneck, although the award went to voice actress Anjelica Huston, animation directors Gino Nichele and Sebastian Brodin, and character designers Jean Gillmore and Sean Newton, for the character Gothel from Barbie as Rapunzel.[8] Also in 2003, The Land Before Time IX: Journey to Big Water garnered Universal Cartoon Studios an Annie nomination for Outstanding Achievement in an Animated Home Video Production, although the award went to Sparkling and Nelvana Limited's Rolie Polie Olie: The Great Defender of Fun. Characters Cast English The Land Before Time IX: Journey to Big Water was the last of the films in the Land Before Time series in which Thomas Dekker provided the voice of the character Littlefoot. *John Ingle as the Narrator/Mr. Threehorn *Kenneth Mars as Grandpa Longneck *Miriam Flynn as Grandma Longneck/Diplodocus Mom *Thomas Dekker as Littlefoot *Anndi McAfee as Cera *Aria Noelle Curzon as Ducky *Rob Paulsen as Spike/Mo *Tress MacNeille as Mama Swimmer/Mama Flyer *Jeff Bennett as Petrie *Frank Welker as Swimming Sharptooth Japanese *Minami Takayama as Littlefoot *Rica Matsumoto as Cera *Satomi Kōrogi as Ducky *Yūji Mitsuya as Petrie *Sailor King as Spike *George Nakata as Mr. Threehorn Note: The Japanese voice actors are appearing so far. Songs *Chanson D'Ennui *Imaginary Friend *Big Water *No One Has to Be Alone Notes *This is the second Land Before Time ''film to be released on December 10th. The first is ''The Land Before Time IV: Journey Through the Mists. *The Land Before Time IX: Journey to Big Water was released the same year that Universal Studios released The Land Before Time II: The Great Valley Adventure and The Land Before Time III: The Time of the Great Giving on DVD for the first time. *Littlefoot uses the term "sky colors" to refer to a rainbow in this film. However, the term rainbow was used in The Stone of Cold Fire to describe the "Rainbow Face" species. *This movie marks the first appearance of regular Rainbow Faces, unlike the what appear to be extra-terrestrials disguised as Rainbow Faces in The Land Before Time VII: The Stone of Cold Fire. *The scene where Littlefoot wishes out loud that his mother had given him a brother to play with is noted to be the second time in the series Littlefoot actually refers to his mother since the original, the other time being when he refers to her in the final verse of "Always There", from The Land Before Time V: The Mysterious Island. Ironically and coincidentally this became a spoiler to the later appearance of Shorty who would later become Littlefoot's adopted brother in The Land Before Time X: The Great Longneck Migration which is a sequel to The Land Before Time IX: Journey to Big Water. *This movie marks the first time eggs are computer-animated in a Land Before Time film (The eggs are shown upclose when the gang find Ducky in Mrs. Mama's nest). Hand-drawn elements are mapped onto each of the eggs in the later scene where they hatch. The log Cera and her father are pushing at the beginning of the film is also computer-animated. *The Internet Movie Database once mistook The Land Before Time VII: The Stone of Cold Fire character Sierra (voiced by Jim Cummings) to be in this film, but he has since been removed from the cast list. *This is the fourth time Spike sings in the series; he can be heard humming during the song "Big Water". *This is the first film in which nobody cries. *This is one of the several Land Before Time films to prior several previous Land Before Time films. Errors *A sea horse can be seen on on the box art of the film, but none appear in the film itself. *In the DVD special features for the movie, Petrie is incorrectly referred to as a Pterodactyl, and Ducky is referred to as a Parasaurolophus, which contradicts the [http://landbeforetime.wikia.com/wiki/The_Land_Before_Time_Sing-Along_Songs Sing-Along Songs] video which calls her a Saurolophus. 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